Welcome to Tech Latino! This is Stanford Latino’s biweekly newsletter where we capture the emerging trends, biggest deals, and exciting ideas in the LatAm technology environment.
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In the past two weeks…
💵 Latitud secures $11.5 Million: Latitud, a platform that allows for Latin American tech-based entrepreneurship to thrive, raised $11.5 million in a seed round co-led by a16z and NFX. Latitud was founded in 2020 after its founders noticed a disconnect in the rate at which the tech startup world was expanding and the knowledge and tools available in Latin America. The platform– through education programs led by world-class operators, a venture fund, and more– has allowed over 800 founders to operate their businesses, raise $250 million, and be valued at a collective $1.5 billion.
🚀 Treinta raises $46 million: A free application that helps small businesses manage their finances and increase their sales, Treinta was founded in August 2020. In a Series A round funded by PayU, Prosus, Liontree, and more, Treinta recently raised $46 million. With this new round of investment, Treinta plans to speed up its short-term plans so that micro-businesses reduce the use of cash in their sales. In 2021, its 5 million+ users totaled transactions worth more than $10 billion were registered on its platform.
🍋Lemon Cash expands to Brazil: Lemon Cash–a cryptocurrency app started in Argentina late into 2019–is now expanding beyond its home country. Lemon Cash allows for its users to accessibly invest in many cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and USDT. Until right now, the app has been immensely successful in Argentina, partnering with Visa to introduce a crypto card nationally and having become the most downloaded app of the Argentinian App Store. Now, they've released the beta version of their app in Brazil to 10,000 users.
💪🏽 JP Morgan commits $20M to support latino-led businesses: In accordance with its $30 billion racial equity commitment, JP Morgan has provided $20 million to Latino venture fund L’attitude. The fund, started in 2019 by Sol Trujillo and Gary Acosta, began with the hope to remediate the underfunding of Latino entrepreneurship. L’attitude provides Latino businesses in the U.S. the resources they require in their early developmental stages.
💓 Plenna opens its first physical location: Plenna, the Mexican Femtech startup, recently opened its first physical location in Mexico City. The company offers comprehensive, woman-focused healthcare, which is lacking within the Mexican healthcare system. Before Plenna, there was no system that allowed patients to view their medical history online, which decreased the trust women had in doctors. Plenna creates simple content to allow women to better understand their bodies, create communities online and get comprehensive care.
Last but not least… Bad Bunny won his second GRAMMY for his album El Último Tour Del Mundo for Best Música Urbana Album 🐰 Listen to it here!
Spotlights : The Four F’s!
Every week, we spotlight one of each: a firm, a fund, a founder, and a food item. This week, we look at Bitso, it’s founder Daniel Vogel, Newtopia, and Empanadas!
🪙 Firm Spotlight: Bitso
Bitso is a cryptocurrency exchange founded by Ben Peters, Pablo Gonzalez and Daniel Vogel. Starting in 2014 as one of the first FinTech startups and Crypto platforms in Mexico, Bitso has expanded to countries like Argentina and Brazil and achieved unicorn status (valuation over $1 billion) after their $250M Series C led by Tiger Global and Coatue. During their sixth year in business, Bitso achieved one million customers, a number that has grown to over four million in the last two years. In response to this accelerated growth, Bitso is developing new products destined to make crypto useful in Latin America, including a crypto derivatives platform and interest bearing accounts.
🙋🏻♂️ Founder Spotlight: Daniel Vogel
Daniel Vogel is one of the co-founders and the CEO of Bitso. Originally from Mexico, Daniel graduated from Stanford University with two bachelors degrees, one in Economics and one in Computer Systems Engineering. He then went on to complete his MBA at Harvard Business School in 2015. Before founding Bitso in 2014, he worked in Quantcast as both a Senior Software Engineer and a Product Manager. He is also a board member of FinTech Mexico and a partner at Xochi Ventures. Having confounded Bridge Partners, Daniel helps empower Latin America’s early stage entrepreneurs.
🤝 Fund Spotlight: Newtopia
Newtopia is an Argentinian Venture Capital firm. The founders, Patricio Jutard, Mariano Mayer, Sacha Spitz, Jorge Aguado, and Juan Pablo Lafosse, are all distinguished entrepreneurs in Latin America, having been founded companies like MURAL, Yavu Ventures, and ALMUNDO. Newtopia is currently selecting 10 companies to participate in their 10 week program to receive 100,000 dollars and close metorship throughout it all. The firm just announced that their first fund will be 50 million dollars. The firm is looking for entrepreneurs wanting to “create a new reality”.
🥟 Food Spotlight: Empanadas
Empanadas are a typical dish from Spain but are eaten in many different Latin American countries, which have adopted their own take on making them (my favorite are Argentinian empanadas— pictured above). They consist of friend dough from flour, corn, or even yuca. Fillings vary, but are typically made up of ingredients like beef, chicken, veggies, or cheese. For example, a typical Colombian empanada is made from corn flour, filled with beef, and is eaten with a fresh lime on the side. Leave a comment telling us about your favorite empanada!
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